TO: All Employees
FR: Karen Moranski, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs
On Friday, August 9, 2024, Sonoma State University and the California Faculty Association reached a one-year agreement on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding academic Department Chairs related to the Academic Reorganization approved on April 3, 2024.
The impact of this one-year agreement is that we will move forward with the implementation of reorganization in terms of college structure and school structure, while maintaining for one year the department chair model and the associated WTUs from academic year 2023-24. Academic Affairs will be determining the budgetary impact and assessing how to manage additional base budget expenses.
Specific terms of the MOU include:
- Each department will have a Department Chair.
- Department Chairs whose terms had not expired in Spring 2024 may continue as chair unless another chair was selected. Departments with vacant chair positions will be offered to faculty selected by their colleagues.
- The same number of WTUs granted to Department Chairs in AY23/24 will be allocated to department chairs for AY24/25.
- Department Chairs may serve as School Chairs.
The Office of Faculty Affairs and Success (FAS), in collaboration with the Office of Academic Resources and College Deans, will work with departments to determine who will serve in the role of department chair and how WTUs for Department Chairs will be allocated. FAS will be releasing chair contracts in the next few days, as decisions are made. Release time is issued in WTUs, not in course releases.
One of the key questions about reorganization is the role and responsibilities of School Chairs. Over the next year, we will be having conversations with those Department Chairs who have the title of School Chair to refine that role in terms of the collaborative work we need to do to build interdisciplinarity, enrollment and innovative curriculum.